Carmen

I have a couple of extra photo's to add from my last post and then I'll move on to my trip to the Coliseum theatre. 

Jane Eyre: Jane and Mr Rochester sit here after her return.

Jane Eyre: Jane and Mr Rochester see a dragonfly here.

 Jane Eyre: Jane sits by this barn when she returns and finds Thornfield in ruins.

I return to London and had to go straight back out as I had tickets for Roland Petit's Carmen at the Coliseum theatre. The Coliseum is wonderfully decorated in a slightly garish but in keeping with the theme, Roman style decor. It is also one of the few theatre that has decently spaced  boxes however I still managed to sit behind a really tall person.
I didn't realise that I would be seeing three different performances. L'Arlesienne was very sweet, using a Van Gogh picture as a backdrop. The story is based on a French play and uses Bizet music, A boy discovers on his wedding day that his fiance was unfaithful and slowly goes mad. It is beautifully choreographed and so beautifully danced by the whole company. The costumes where fantastic too.

We then had a 35 minute interval and then I think the best piece of the night which was Le Jeune Homme et la Mort which was set to the music of Bach and was beautifully performed by Yonah Acosta (is from Cuda and has the same surname so I think he is related to Carlos) and opens with a great homage to Henry Wallis's famous painting. This piece had a story written by Jean Cocteau so was very French expressionistic but was beautiful and so well acted. I will definitely be watching Yonah.

Another 35 minutes later and finally we had Carmen. Beautifully recreating the Havana of South America they used the always excellent score of Bizet's opera of the same name it was beautifully danced and the main couple had great partner pieces.

It was a good night (although the 35 minute intervals made this a tad longer then it should have been). I always like the coliseum and they have an interesting programme this year.

Facilities: With 35 minutes to work with, queues at the toilet aren't really an issue. They were however clean and there were plenty. They also had jugs of free water at the bar so you can help yourself instead of flagging down the wait staff.